Books in Tilbury House Nature Books series

Jonathan isn’t as strong or physical as his brother and can’t seem to please his beekeeper dad when he tries to help on the farm.Worried about the drought that has caused a big decrease in honey production, his dad is irritable and remote, seemingly unable to offer the acceptance that Jonathan yearns for. But one sleepless night Jonathan joins his mother in the kitchen making beeswax candles for sale, and discovers an outlet for his artistic talents that will make a big contribution to the family finances. Bee-fact sidebars buzz through this human story about a child trying to please his father.In this expanded paperback edition, an “About Bees” appendix offers further natural history about these vital and fascinating insects.Helps us see that sensitive, artistic boys have their own special place. Fountas & Pinnell Level O

* GREEN EARTH BOOK AWARD ** MOONBEAM GOLD AWARD(NON-FICTION) ** MARYLAND BLUE CRAB AWARD ** SOCIETY OF SCHOOL LIBRARIANS INTERNATIONAL HONOR AWARD *On a cool December morning near San Francisco, a distress call was radioed to shore by a local fisherman. He had discovered a humpback whale tangled in hundreds of yards of crab-trap lines, struggling to stay at the surface to breathe. A team of volunteers answered the call, and four divers risked their lives to rescue the enormous animal.What followed was a rare and remarkable demonstration of animal behavior. This celebrated story, beautifully depicted in Jennifer O’Connell’s mesmerizing paintings, will make you wonder about animal emotions and the unique connections we can have with animals―even whales.Fountas & Pinnell Level M

*John Burroughs Association Riverby Award**Maine Lupine Award**Skipping Stones Honor Book*You might walk right by a vernal pool and not notice it. Often mistaken for mere puddles in the woods, vernal pools are the source of life for many interesting creatures.If you look carefully, you can find them and be amazed! These secret pools form every year when low places on the forest floor fill up with rain and melted snow. They soon become home to hatching wood frogs, spotted salamanders, and fairy shrimp. Even in late summer and fall, when many vernal pools have shrunk to mud holes, creatures such as turtles and snakes rely on them for shelter and food. The Secret Pool introduces young readers to the wonders right underfoot as the voice of a vernal pool shares its secrets through the seasons, and sidebars provide fun facts on its inhabitants and the crucial role these small, often overlooked wetlands play in maintaining a healthy environment.This edition includes new backmatter features about wetland habitats and animals for classroom use and reader interest. Color Throughout

A lyrical narrative voice (the voice of the Milky Way galaxy itself) is augmented by sidebars filled with amazing facts and insights about our galaxy, and by extension, our universe.Inspired by Tilbury House’s award-winning, Kirkus-starred book The Secret Pool (2013).A lyrical narrative voice (the voice of the Milky Way galaxy itself) is augmented by sidebars filled with amazing facts and insights about our galaxy, and by extension, our universe.Features Mike Taylor’s extraordinary night sky photography and breathtaking NASA images of the births and deaths of stars and galaxies.Combines a read-aloud bedtime story with accessible, scientifically accurate sidebar features.The perfect book for a budding stargazer or astronomer.The Tilbury House Nature Book series brings the natural world to life for young readers. Each book aims for the highest standards of scientific accuracy and storytelling magic. color photography

Winner of The Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing AwardSelected for the CCBC Choices 2019 listChildren's Literature Freeman Award 2018A Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People 2019Moth and Wasp, Soil and Ocean tells its story through the memories of a farm boy who, inspired by Pu Zhelong, became a scientist himself.The narrator is a composite of people Pu Zhelong influenced in his work. With further context from Melanie Chan’s historically precise watercolors, this story will immerse young readers in Chinese culture, the natural history of insects, and the use of biological controls in farming. Backmatter provides context and background for this lovely, sophisticated picture book about nature, science, and Communist China.“The first time I saw a scientist in my village was also the first time I saw a wasp hatch out of a moth’s egg,” writes the narrator of this picture book about Chinese scientist Pu Zhelong. “In that moment I could not have said which was the more unexpected―or the more miraculous.”In the early 1960s, while Rachel Carson was writing and defending Silent Spring in the U.S., Pu Zhelong was teaching peasants in Mao Zedong’s Communist China how to forgo pesticides and instead use parasitic wasps to control the moths that were decimating crops and contributing to China’s widespread famine. This story told through the memories of a farm boy (a composite of people inspired by Pu Zhelong) will immerse young readers in Chinese culture, the natural history of insects, and sustainable agriculture. Backmatter provides historical context for this lovely, sophisticated picture book.The author, Sigrid Schmalzer, won the Joseph Levenson Post-1900 Book Prize for 2018 for her book Red Revolution, Green Revolution. This is the most prestigious prize for a book about Chinese history, and the book upon which Moth and Wasp, Soil and Ocean is based. Fountas & Pinnell Level U Color throughout

2019 Moonbeam Silver MedalMany thousands of years ago, when a sheet of ice up to a mile thick began to let go of the land, the Atlantic Ocean flooded great valleys that had been scooped out by glaciers, and the salty waves of an inland sea lapped the green hills of Vermont. Into this arm of the sea swam Charlotte. Her milky, smooth, muscled body sliced slowly through the water like scissors through silk. Like a chirping canary, her voice echoed across dark waters showing the way to her pod as belugas have done for millions of years.In 1849, a crew building a railroad through Charlotte, Vermont, dug up strange and beautiful bones in a farmer’s field. A local naturalist asked Louis Agassiz to help identify them, and the famous scientist concluded that the bones belonged to a beluga whale. But how could a whale’s skeleton have been buried so far from the ocean? The answer―that Lake Champlain had once been an arm of the sea―encouraged radical new thinking about geological time scales and animal evolution. Charlotte’s Bones is a haunting, science-based reconstruction of how Charlotte died 11,000 years ago in a tidal marsh, how the marsh became a field, how Charlotte found a second life as the Vermont state fossil, and what messages her bones whisper to us now about the fragility of life and our changing Earth.Some reader reviews:I am a paleoanthropologist at Dartmouth College-- I study the human evolution and both retrieve & study early human fossils in Africa. We've connected very briefly on twitter when I tweeted out my love of Jeff Howe's book about Charlotte and Nick Pyerson's recent whale book. I just purchased and read Charlotte's Bones to my kids this morning. It is beyond beautiful. I tell my college students all the time that every fossil is precious; that every fossil has a story to tell and deserves to have its story told. Your book captures not just the science, but the true meaning of fossils and how they reveal a deep connectedness between living things, past and present. It is a gift of a book-- thank you. Jerry DeSilva I read Charlotte’s Bones yesterday. My sister Ellen showed it to me. It is beautifully written and illustrated to such an extent it is difficult to read without becoming very emotional. The combination of such pure prose and captivating illustration makes the reader ‘own’ Charlotte’s experience and therefore the reader cares. This is key to us humans, particularly the young ones, actually investing emotionally and practically in the fate of our precious wildlife. I think this fabulous book should be compulsory reading for children and if it makes them sad so much the better. It will help plant seeds of thought and compassion which can blossom in to a passion for respecting and conserving our precious species so under threat from the actions of us humans. Congratulations to you and Erin. Keep going and produce more on this theme please! Kind Regards, Vicky Yeates Color throughout

There is a deserted bay on a small island off Antigua where hawksbill turtles crawl ashore at night during the mating season to lay their eggs. Two months later the hatchlings―each weighing less than an ounce―emerge from the sand and scramble to the sea in the moonlight. Only a lucky few survive. Mary Beth Owens was inspired by her admiration and concern for these critically endangered animals to write and illustrate this beautiful book. The narrator―a craggy, ancient jumby tree that stands sentinel over the bay―observes a hawksbill’s arrival by night, her arduous trek to excavate a nest and bury her eggs, her solitary return to the sea, and the later diaspora of her hatchlings. Spare prose complements pages saturated with Caribbean color or brooding in ghostly moonlight. Color throughout

John Burroughs Association Riverby AwardLupine AwardSkipping Stones Honor AwardYou might walk right by a vernal pool and not notice it. Often mistaken for mere puddles in the woods, vernal pools are the source of life for many interesting creatures. If you look carefully, you can find them and be amazed! These secret pools form every year when low places on the forest floor fill up with rain and melted snow. They soon become home to hatching wood frogs, spotted salamanders, and fairy shrimp. Even in late summer and fall, when many vernal pools have shrunk to mud holes, creatures such as turtles and snakes rely on them for shelter and food. The Secret Pool introduces young readers to the wonders right underfoot as the voice of a vernal pool shares its secrets through the seasons, and sidebars provide fun facts on its inhabitants and the crucial role these small, often overlooked wetlands play in maintaining a healthy environment. Color Throughout

This beautiful picture book celebrates the power of imagination and an appreciation of the natural world.A young girl finds a starfish on the beach and wants to show it to her mother at home, but doesn’t want to take it from its home. With encouragement from her dad and a little imagination, Ana is able to let the sea star go and yet keep it with her at the same time.This beautiful picture book celebrates the power of imagination and an appreciation of the natural world.Back matter invites children into the lives and experiences of a jellyfish, stingray, loggerhead turtle and other sea creatures. “The sea star waited as the sand settled around it.Then slowly, slowly it crept home to the sea grass meadowon hundreds of tiny tube feet.” “Ana watched a snowy plover grab its dinner from the surf.Then the tiny bird skittered across the sand.Ana and Papa followed their shadows home.” full color

*GREEN EARTH BOOK AWARD* *MOONBEAM GOLD AWARD(NON-FICTION)* *MARYLAND BLUE CRAB AWARD* *SOCIETY OF SCHOOL LIBRARIANS INTERNATIONAL HONOR AWARD*On a cool December morning near San Francisco, a distress call was radioed to shore by a local fisherman. He had discovered a humpback whale tangled in hundreds of yards of crab-trap lines, struggling to stay at the surface to breathe. A team of volunteers answered the call, and four divers risked their lives to rescue the enormous animal.What followed was a rare and remarkable demonstration of animal behavior. This celebrated story, beautifully depicted in Jennifer O’Connell’s mesmerizing paintings, will make you wonder about animal emotions and the unique connections we can have with animals―even whales.Fountas & Pinnell Level M

Michael Garland (Daddy Played the Blues) displays his impressive illustration range with the stylized, country-quilt, digital collage illustrations of A Season of Flowers. Snowdrops and crocuses yield to tulips and hyacinths, then dogwood blossoms, iris, lupine, daisies, morning glories, daylilies, geraniums, peonies, sunflowers, roses, and chrysanthemums as spring passes to summer, then autumn. At last the garden slumbers into winter under a blanket of snow, preparing next year’s procession of blooms. Like actors crossing a stage, flowers narrate the passing seasons in the first person, each one briefly proclaiming its unique and vital role in the natural world. Backmatter descriptions complete this child’s introduction to a garden year, in which the passage of time is vividly realized. Fountas & Pinnell Level L Color throughout

2019 Moonbeam Silver MedalMany thousands of years ago, when a sheet of ice up to a mile thick began to let go of the land, the Atlantic Ocean flooded great valleys that had been scooped out by glaciers, and the salty waves of an inland sea lapped the green hills of Vermont. Into this arm of the sea swam Charlotte. Her milky, smooth, muscled body sliced slowly through the water like scissors through silk. Like a chirping canary, her voice echoed across dark waters showing the way to her pod as belugas have done for millions of years.In 1849, a crew building a railroad through Charlotte, Vermont, dug up strange and beautiful bones in a farmer’s field. A local naturalist asked Louis Agassiz to help identify them, and the famous scientist concluded that the bones belonged to a beluga whale. But how could a whale’s skeleton have been buried so far from the ocean? The answer―that Lake Champlain had once been an arm of the sea―encouraged radical new thinking about geological time scales and animal evolution. Charlotte’s Bones is a haunting, science-based reconstruction of how Charlotte died 11,000 years ago in a tidal marsh, how the marsh became a field, how Charlotte found a second life as the Vermont state fossil, and what messages her bones whisper to us now about the fragility of life and our changing Earth.Some reader reviews:I am a paleoanthropologist at Dartmouth College-- I study the human evolution and both retrieve & study early human fossils in Africa. We've connected very briefly on twitter when I tweeted out my love of Jeff Howe's book about Charlotte and Nick Pyerson's recent whale book. I just purchased and read Charlotte's Bones to my kids this morning. It is beyond beautiful. I tell my college students all the time that every fossil is precious; that every fossil has a story to tell and deserves to have its story told. Your book captures not just the science, but the true meaning of fossils and how they reveal a deep connectedness between living things, past and present. It is a gift of a book-- thank you. Jerry DeSilva I read Charlotte’s Bones yesterday. My sister Ellen showed it to me. It is beautifully written and illustrated to such an extent it is difficult to read without becoming very emotional. The combination of such pure prose and captivating illustration makes the reader ‘own’ Charlotte’s experience and therefore the reader cares. This is key to us humans, particularly the young ones, actually investing emotionally and practically in the fate of our precious wildlife. I think this fabulous book should be compulsory reading for children and if it makes them sad so much the better. It will help plant seeds of thought and compassion which can blossom in to a passion for respecting and conserving our precious species so under threat from the actions of us humans. Congratulations to you and Erin. Keep going and produce more on this theme please! Kind Regards, Vicky Yeates Color throughout